Fresh AF Salsa – The Hell Ya! Diet Preview

Fresh AF Salsa to top just about anything

When the weather starts to warm up my body craves fresh food. You too?

Over the past few years I developed some pretty uncomfortable and embarrassing digestive issues. I finally got them under control a few months ago by eating clean, whole food. Over the past couple weeks I’ve noticed that a lot of packaged foods that I used to love will take me right back to those old feelings. Bloated, uncomfortable and unhappy.

Salsa is one of those foods that I absolutely loved. I lived off of salsa and chips. You know those huge jugs with the handle? I bought those because I ate so much salsa.

About 4 weeks ago my boyfriend and I went for our usual Wednesday night nachos. Within minutes of starting to eat my stomach ballooned up. There was so much grease from the cheese, I assumed it was from that.

So we stopped going out for nachos and started making them at home. This is when I first created Fresh AF Salsa.

Then, just the other night I had a big bowl of chips and salsa and I felt so awful afterwards and into the next day. Clearly, it wasn’t just the greasy cheese that was causing me issues.

The thing is, these feelings are kind of a blessing in disguise. Yes, it sucks to not be able to eat my favourite foods but it forces me to only put clean, whole and fresh af foods into my body.

The fresh af ingredients

This salsa isn’t only delicious, it’s also super healthy.

Tomatoes

Did you know that tomatoes are the 4th more consumed vegetable in the USA? Fresh tomatoes are high in Vitamin C and contain Vitamin E. You’ve probably heard that tomatoes are high in lycopene, but what is that?

Lycopene is a carotenoid which is a phytonutrient (plant chemical) that gives food and plants a yellow, red or orange colour. Lycopene also acts as an antioxidant along with Vitamins C and E.

Avocado

Avocados are high in healthy fatty acids, fibre, Vitamins C, E and B’s and low in sugar. It’s also important to note that avocados are a good source of natural phytosterols which have been shown to reduce blood cholesterol.

Cilantro

I know some people hate cilantro – so you can definitely leave it out – but it has so many great health benefits. Eating cilantro will give you Vitamins C, A and B’s, calcium, iron and potassium and it’s high in antioxidants.

Corn

So you might look at the recipe and think ‘This is FRESH AF Salsa, why does it have frozen corn in it?’

Well my friend, I’m glad you asked.

All my recipes have to be three things: simple, healthy and delicious. I do this so you will actually eat healthy food. I know that if it’s complicated or tastes weird you’re not going to want to actually cook clean food. You’ll just go back to what you were been doing before.

Using frozen corn is much more simple than cooking and removing kernels from an ear of corn. Also, frozen ingredients can be more healthy than ‘fresh’ ones. When vegetables are frozen it’s done really close to the time they were picked. And they were picked when they were ripe. This locks all the nutrients into the food.

‘Fresh’ ingredients that have been shipped across the country are picked when they’re still green. Then they’re stored in trucks and pumped with chemicals to ripen them along the way. This means they didn’t ripen properly in the field so they have fewer nutrients to begin with and they lose nutrients on their journey from farm to grocery store.

It’s still important to eat all kinds of vegetables. When the season is right where you live make sure you buy from local producers. When it’s out of season buy produce that is as close to local as you can get. And don’t discredit frozen ingredients!

Meal prep for simplicity

Fresh AF Salsa can be made a few days ahead and stored in the fridge – just add the avocado when you’re ready to eat it. I suggest making it at least two hours before you eat it so the flavours have a chance to hang out – but you can keep it in the fridge for up to four days.

This makes it really great for meal prepping because it’s so easy to make and it stores well. Also, you can eat it on anything.